“Morrigan, what are you doing here ?” asked Ken.

“Why, hello Blondie. How have you been ? And by the way, I’m fine, thank you.” said Morrigan, smiling. She suddenly floated in sitting position, which in actual, she was sitting on bats.

“Morrigan. What. Are. You. Doing. Here ?” asked RD, repeating Ken’s question in a stern and annoyed tone.

Morrigan pouted. “Dragon, you’re still mad at me ?”

RD scowled. “The last time we met, you were with Dark Warrior going up against the Slayer and me. And also, I don’t think I need to remind you that you two were about to raise an old, deadly, and powerful demon.”

Morrigan smiled. “Yeah, you’re still mad at me. By the way, in case you forget, I helped stopping the demon, right ?”

RD sighed, defeated. “Fine, so you did, now what do you want ?”

“Well, like I said before, I know what those two demons up to.”

“And that would be ?”

Morrigan stepped down and leaned forward. “Say please.” whispered Morrigan in a sensual tone.

RD had to gather all his will power to not break Morrigan’s neck and stake her through the heart. “Please.”

“That’s better.” said Morrigan. “Those two are going time-traveling to the past. They are looking for this evil sword called… er… what is it ? Soul… err… Soul Edge, I think. They are looking for this sword to enhanced their evil power.”

“Time-traveling ? How are they going to do that ?” asked Ryu.

“They are going to use a spell. I think they got it from a temple somewhere outside Tokyo.”

Ryu Dragon felt like his blood was drained out. “A temple ? What is the temple called ?” he asked so fast and loud, nearly shouting at Morrigan.

“Something… light… er… wait a minute, the name is on the tip of my tongue.” – Morrigan.

“The Order of the Light ?”

“Yeah, that’s right.” replied Morrigan. “Order of the Light. How did you know ?”

But RD didn’t hear the question. His mind was somewhere else, trying to absorb the information. His body shook violently. “It happen again, the people that dear to me are suffering because of that bloody b*st*rd. First, my teammates, then the people that I met, and now the monks… I’ll kill that b*st*rd !!”. Out of frustration, he screamed to the sky. Raging uncontrollably, he punched a cement fence nearby, creating a big hole on the fence. He then fell on his knees and cried painfully.

“Dragon…” – Ken. He reached out to calm Dragon.

Out of reflex Ryu Dragon shoved away his hands, he stood up and moved away from his friends and Morrigan. “Don’t touch me.” He said so hardly he practically spat out the words.

Yuki moved toward him. “Ryu, please calm down.”

He shook his head and walked back. “No, no, please, don’t touch me, don’t come near me. Don’t you see ?”

“See what ?” asked Chun Li with a worried tone.

“Can’t you see ?!” Ryu Dragon shouted. “Can’t you see that anyone who are close to me always get hurt or killed whenever that son of b*tch is around ?! First, my teammates, now, the monks in the temple !” He shuddered. “My life will never be peaceful as long as he lived.” Then he looked away from his friends. “This matter start because of me, it’s only right if I’m the one who finish it, alone.”

A solid punch landed on Ryu Dragon’s left cheek. He rocked back, nearly thrown down. It was Ken who punched him. “Stop being an assh*le ! You think you can take him down alone ? Well, look at now ! It’s been a year since you chasing him down, he’s not only still alive, but he’s getting stronger and now he work with Akuma, the b*stard who killed Ryu, Dan, and my sensei ! You think you can take him down alone ? You’re dreaming, pal !” Ken’s fist shook so hard from his anger.

A hand enclosed on Ken’s fist. He looked up and it was Ryu’s. He looked directly at Ryu’s calm eyes and he could feel himself calming down. With a gentle tone, Ryu spoke “Dragon, I know you are feeling a lot of anger and guilt.” When Dragon was about to replied, he raised his hand, palm toward Dragon to stop him. “Please, let me finish. I can relate to your feeling. When sensei died in hand of Akuma, I felt a lot of anger and guilt and sadness from not being able to save him. I keep asking myself, ‘What if Ken and I were there at that time and fought along with our sensei ? He wouldn’t be dead now.’ But you know what ?” He closed his eyes trying to fight the tears that threatening to flow from his eyes. “He is dead. Then, I lost myself. I’ve lost the only guidance that I have. Slowly, I began to slip into the dark path. I began to get consumed with hatred and anger toward Akuma. I abandoned my friends, pushing them away in name of anger, which I cover up with searching for the meaning of ‘Fight’, ‘The Way of Warrior’. I was a fool. The Satsui No Hado began to consume me, turning me into the dark path. I tried to push it away, alone. But I’m not strong enough to do it alone.” He then breath deeply and let go. He opened his eyes, and Dragon could see determination in Ryu’s eyes. “But I was lucky.” He smiled gently. “My friends never gave up on me. Only with their help and support that I can get through the madness and become stronger.” Ryu stretched out his right hand toward Dragon. “Dragon, you have a lot of pain and anger in you. But you don’t have to carry it alone. Let us share the burden. We’ll help each other. What do you say ?”

The two fighters eyed each other, Ryu with determination and gentleness in his eyes, and Dragon with anger, confusion, and pain in his eyes. Then, Yuki stepped up beside Ryu. In her eyes, as Dragon can see, was the gentleness that strangely drawn him from all the uncomfortable feelings that he felt now. Looking into her eyes, he felt being drawn into her calmness, like floating on water without care. It’s something that he had not feels for a long time, he felt uncomfortable, yet did not resist being drawn into. Shifting his gaze back to Ryu, now he felt calm and determines. Smiling softly, he stretched out his right hands and took Ryu’s hand in. “I say lets kick some demons’ asses.”

On the next day, in the morning, two cars arrived at the base of the hill where the temple of Order of Light located. Five people came out from each car and walked toward the stone stairs that led to the first level of the temple ground. When they all reached the first level, they stopped to examine the environment. About a hundred meters in front of them was the entrance to the front hall of the temple where visitors came for praying – although none at the moment and at times to hold some classes for monks of would be monks. The way to the temple itself was wide enough to accommodate five adults to walk in a row. On each side of the road were thick and big Sakura trees, not yet blooming, although almost the time.

The group then started to walk again, holding the front line were three karate-dos, Ken, on his side was Ryu Dragon, and on Dragon’s side was Ryu. Dragon’s position was a bit in front of the other two fighters as he knew the layout and the temple’s monks. Behind them were Chun Li, Eliza, and Natalie, then followed by Nathen, Yuki, and Dan. The last was Claude. When they walked halfway through, suddenly a group of monks jumped out of the woods, surrounding the group. Each monk held a wooden staff as a weapon. The group quickly positioned themselves facing outward. Excepting the two non-fighters and the three karate-dos, each fighter fell into their respective fighting stance.

One of the monks spoke “Who seek the entry to the temple ?”

Ryu Dragon replied. “I, Ryu Dragon, along with my companions…” He quickly catch the attacking staff aimed to his forehead from the monk who asked the question. When the monks heard the name, they all began attacking at the group. There were twenty or so monks against eight fighters, but in short time, all the monks had been disarm and without any injuries more serious than sprain nerves. All the monks quickly fell back into formation and readied themselves.

“Um… why are they attacking us ?” asked Claude innocently.

“Because they mistook Dragon with his evil twin.” Answered Nathen shortly without looking at Claude. His gaze as hard as steel toward the monks.

“Okay, this is sucks.” Said Claude softly.

The leader of the monks shouted “You, evil creature dare to come again after defiling our temple ?! Some nerve you’ve got.”

Dragon understood, but he had to try to explain anyway. “I’ve heard what happened in the temple earlier. Two demonic fighters had come and caused big trouble. But the fighter who looked like me was not me.” At the unbelieving looks of the monks, Dragon knew that he couldn’t make them understand, but he kept trying anyway. “The fighter who looked like me is called Dark Warrior, I know he possessed the same physical traits as I do, but it was not I.” At the lack of response from the monks, he sighed. “We need to see the abbot to seek and provide help.”

“We don’t need help from demons !” shouted a monk who walked toward the formation of the monk.

From the uniform that the monk wore – a set of white Buddhist monk clothes and a red cape – and the weapon that he carried – a spear with snake lookalike blade, Dragon knew that this was the famous fighter monk from the Order of Light, Shiro. Shiro was a legend in the Order, he was renowned for his great fighting skills, weapon or barehanded and gigantic power, even though he was not so big in frame. He did not live in the temple, but travel around the world to learn every fighting styles that he encountered, and challenging fighters around the world. Whenever Shiro got back to the temple, he would teach any new skills that he had learned, thus expanding and building the variety of martial arts in the temple. Aside from fighting skills, he also had a very powerful telepathic link with the abbot of the temple, so when he was needed or summoned, he could come quickly. Nobody really knew of his age, some said that he was over two hundred years old, but from his looks, he might pass as fifty years old man.

Seeing Shiro in front of him, Ryu Dragon could only assume the worst had happened – most of the monks are killed and/or the abbot was killed. “I, Ryu Dragon, greets the head of the martial arts division of the Order, Shiro. Shiro-san, we really need to see the abbot for matter of worst than life and death.”

The abbot pointed at Dragon with his spear. “Ryu Dragon, you were a best friend of the Order. You and the Order had been through a lot, yet, you had the nerve to come here and caused a lot of trouble and stole the sacred spell scroll.”

“Shiro-san, as I said before, the fighter who looks like me, who came earlier is not me. He was…”

“Enough !!!” Shiro roared, cutting Dragon’s explanation.

Then the fight began. Shiro started with a swipe with his spear around Dragon’s midsection. The younger fighter moved back a bit and the swipe passed only an inch from his jacket. When the other fighters were about to give a hand, Dragon shouted to them to move back, and they did. Again, Shiro made a swipe around the midsection, only this time from different direction. This time, instead of stepping back, Dragon stepped forward and blocked the spear on the wooden part with his left hand. Shiro quickly spun his spear three hundreds and sixty degrees vertically, the blade came from down and would cut Dragon in two if he did not quickly stepped aside.

Shiro then quickly pulled his spear back, then using his technique “Lightning Stab”, he attacked Dragon with series of accurately and viciously fast thrusts to Dragon’s upper body parts. Having the disadvantage of range, Dragon evaded the thrusts by moving his upper body part gracefully in circular motion or deflecting the attack with his palms filled with chi. Then, the attack began to lessen, Dragon sensed this and then he lunged as he evaded a stab to his left shoulder. But that was a trap, Shiro quickly spun the butt end of the spear toward Dragon. The attack almost connected to Dragon’s forehead. He barely blocked the surprise attack with his right hand. When he blocked, a straight kick went in and hit his stomach. Dragon doubled over and Shiro was about to attack with downward stab with the butt end of the spear but Dragon quickly rolled over and launched a swipe kick catching Shiro on the back of his right knee.

Shiro went down, but quickly got up again and readied his stance. Dragon released a chi projectile attack to test Shiro’s reaction. Shiro retaliated with a chi powered up punch and destroyed the projectile. The reaction caught Dragon off guard, and in the split second, Shiro launched a thrust again. Dragon was quick enough to recover from the shock and stepped to the outside of Shiro’s stance and sent in a shovel hook to Shiro’s stomach. Shiro grunted and replied with a vicious backhand, catching Dragon’s cheek and sent him reeling a couple steps.

The two fighters set on their stances. After waiting for few seconds, Shiro attacked, again with a stab. This time, Dragon used a different tactic, he knew as long as Shiro had the spear, it would be too difficult and took too much time to defeat him, and time was precious at the moment. Dragon spun his hands in circular motion creating a circular energy in form of the symbol of Yin/Yang. The energy caught the spear and spun it along with the energy motion, deflecting the thrust’s energy. Shiro, however did not get panic, he did not try to pull his spear because it proved useless as the suction power of the technique was so strong. Instead, he pushed the spear while at the same time followed the same circular motion. This tactic was the best way to counter the “Tao Blast” technique with minimum power, but lucky for Dragon, through his journey, he had known this counter tactic, and a lot of times through the hard way. This time, he was quite ready because he did not underestimate his opponent. As the spear lunged forward, he quickly jumped back out of the spear reach.

Dragon quickly recovered. He frowned at what just happened. His opponent was really strong, very experienced, and quick thinking. He would really have a hard time fighting Shiro. Shiro, was amazed at Dragon’s reflex and power. There were not many of even experienced fighters that he met through his journey that could react so quick, and the power in Dragon’s technique was something that rarely can be achieved by any great fighters at such young age. But the amazement would not prevent Shiro from killing the young fighter for what he did to the Order. Again, Shiro attacked first, this time, he did not use any stabbing attack at all. All his attacks were in circular motion, making it difficult for Dragon to counter attack. For a full six minutes, all Dragon could do against the powerful monk’s attacks were evading or countered with projectile attacks, but however he tried to counter attack, Shiro’s defense was just too powerful.

Then, the moment came when Dragon was in the air from jumping high to evade Shiro’s attack, this time, Shiro attack with a stab. “Now !” thought Dragon, as he spun his hands in circular motion again, creating the Yin/Yang symbol. Again, the energy caught the spear. “Fool !” thought Shiro as he used the same tactic to counter the technique. If the tactic worked, the spear would surely skewered Dragon’s chest and created a big hole on his chest as Dragon’s position did not allow him to move back fast enough to evade. But this time, Dragon is ready, when the spear thrust through the energy, he quickly spun his upper body, so that the blade of the spear only grazed his left shoulder. He quickly caught the spear with his right hand, then lighting quick, he wrapped his right leg around the spear and broke the spear in the middle.

Caught off guard, Shiro did not realize that Dragon had landed and launched a projectile attack. He barely lifted his hands to block the incoming yellow energy. He thought that he could handle the impact even with little energy. He was wrong. The projectile hit, and Shiro felt like being electrocuted with thousands volts of electric power. He barely let out a scream as his body limped and fell down to earth. Seeing Shiro fell down, Natalie winced, she knew how Shiro felt for she had taste the projectile effect a year back when she and Dragon had a little match. She felt sore after that match for the whole day.

“Brother !!!” shouted the monks as they reached out toward Shiro. “What have you done to him ?!” asked a monk.

Dragon looked at the monk. “He would recover soon, do not worry.”

“You…” the monk was about to lunge but was stopped by a powerful presence that came in front of him.

“Stop. Enough of the fighting.” Said the man who just came down. He wore the same uniform as Shiro and a small green jewelry was tied around his baldhead, the sign of the abbot. He looked quite young, probably in his mid-thirties. Yet he shone a powerful and charismatic presence. He looked at Ryu Dragon with steely gaze. “Ryu Dragon, what is it that you want this time ? Why are you causing so much trouble upon the Order ?”

Ryu Dragon bowed. “Abbot Yokai, I come in peace to ask for your help to destroy two demonic fighters that caused trouble earlier in the Order.”

“You liar and have no shame ! You are the demon and… !” shouted a monk, but he was quickly silenced by the gaze of the abbot.

“Ryu Dragon, earlier in this temple, I saw with my own eyes along with my brothers that you came with a fighter called Gouki and wreak havoc in the temple. Do you deny that ?” asked the abbot.

Dragon sighed. “Abbot Yokai, with the gem that you inherited as the abbot, you are able to read someone’s mind, why don’t you do it ?”

The abbot seemed a bit hesitant, there were dangers in trying to read someone’s mind, but at the same time, he felt that this Ryu Dragon might be telling the truth. He decided to take the risk and began the process. He closed his eyes and focused his mind with the help of the gem’s power to reach into Dragon’s mind. As he reached in and read Dragon’s mind, he found out the truth of the problems, he shuddered involuntarily at the horrors that he saw in Dragon’s mind. He broke the link and return to reality. He almost fell when he came back to reality, but Ryu Dragon caught him on his hand. When the abbot recovered, he smiled sadly at Ryu Dragon. “Ryu Dragon, we of the Order owe you an apology, what can we do to assist you and your friends ?”